The Shogun's Daughter
by les etoiles et le ciel
Summary: It started when he meets a beautiful stranger in his village, she just so happens to be a princess. fuedal japan au/K for now.


Mira: yo, been rewatching bleach and was feeling all the rangiku/gin feels again so I decided to write an AU for my fav pair of star crossed lovers. Wrote this whole chapter at like 1am so it might totally totally suck and I just can't tell. If it does suck, let me know and I'll just leave it here as a oneshot. If ya like it I'll continue the story and make it a chaptered fic.

Anyways, read and review, getting feedback from readers has always been super important to me. ON with the fic.

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He met her when they were just kids, they were around their mid-teens at the time. He had no idea who she was, why would he ever think that the princess herself would be in the middle of town?

Rangiku Matsumoto, she was a sight to behold alright. He had heard rumors of how beautiful she was, never did he think that he'd see her or let alone meet her. She wore a common yukata, blonde hair falling down her back in waves of gold, and light steel blue eyes scanning the unfamiliar market district. He was immediately taken by her, losing interest in the vendor he was about to steal food from.

"Ya look lost." he began, catching her attention, "Would ya like me to show ya around?"

She looked at him for a moment, scanning him before deciding to let her guard down.

"That sounds like a fine idea." she responded, brushing dust off of the fabric of her clothing.

'So formal.' he thought before showing her around. He made sure to keep out of the watchful eye of the vendors, he had a reputation after all. He walked her down the dirt road, showing her all the food his surprise she had put down money for one of the food vendors, buying both herself and he something to eat but, he wasn't going to turn down food.

They walked into the merchant area after that, passing jewelry and antiquity merchants, she stopped at one of the jewelry merchants, eyeing a thin silver chain before continuing to walk ahead of him. He stared at for a moment before swiping it from the table discreetly, she must've liked it if she had paused to look at it.

He took her to the place that he called home, a small shack that was rather condemned but still had a roof so it was good enough for him. She talked about how lively the streets were like she'd never been in them before, that should have been his first clue but, he was too busy admiring her. He planned on giving her the necklace and then putting the moves on her, as any teenage boy would though he figured he should at least know her name first.

"So, I haven't got yer name yet. Mine is Ichimaru Gin." he told her with a wide grin.

"My name is Rangiku." she replied with a small smile.

"Ha. Just like the princess, eh?" he laughed in response. She let out a small, nervous sounding giggle. He eyed her after that, finally taking in the combination of her beauty, unfamiliarity with the market district, and formal pattern of speech. "Yer actually the princess, aren't ya?"

Her awkward laugh died out at his realization, she simply nodded back to him in confirmation.

"Well the rumors are true, ya sure are as beautiful as they come." he said mostly to himself, causing a small blush to appear on the princess' cheeks. He suddenly felt as though he should return the necklace before she had him arrested. "What're ya doin' outside the palace? I doubt yer supposed to be here dressed like common folk and what not."

"Well, I have just been so bored as of late," she whined in response. "I have just been wondering what life is like outside of the palace walls."

"Ya know, there are some dirty people out here. S'not safe to be wanderin' around when ya seem so out of place, someone could steal ya and hold ya for ransom." he told her, hoping for some sort of reaction from her or maybe hoping that she'd try to find him again if she ever came out of the palace again.

"I do not think I seemed out of place." she huffed out her rebuttal. "I wore my night robes out here, did I not?"

"Oh please. No one looks clean as ya do, the closest thing people have to baths 'round here is the pond or the river, and ya smell too nice. Ya also looked completely lost and yer speech is 'impeccable'," he told her, he had heard that word from daimyo passing through the town. "Ya practically screamed shogun's daughter. All 'm sayin' is be more careful walkin 'round by yerself."

She blushed a little at his statement, she had to have known she smelled better than any peasant they'd come across including himself. He didn't have any kind of fancy soaps or hair products.

"So how'd ya get money anyway? Don' ya people get whatever ya want handed to ya?" He tried not to sound spiteful but he knew she probably did have anything she wanted handed to her, here he was an orphan who had to resort to being a thief to get by and living in a rundown shack. He wouldn't hold it against her though, he was sure there was some kind of problem to royal life. No one had a perfect life.

"Can I be honest with you?" she asked rhetorically before continuing on, "I took it from my fathers funds."

"Ya stole it? So ya do have a crafty side to ya? I must've misjudged." he quickly pulled the silver chain she'd been eyeing earlier out of his yukata. "I won' tell on ya if yer not gonna tell on me."

He held it out in front of her before asking if she'd want to put it on, which she did. He put it around her neck and looped the chain through the hole. Not to long after she had noticed the sun lowering in the sky and told him she'd have to sneak back into the palace before anyone noticed she was gone.

He had really hoped that it wouldn't be the last time he saw her.


End file.
